Middle East & North Africa Rapid Response Saudi Arabia Consumer Prices (June 2024) Saudi Arabia’s headline inflation rate edged slightly down to a six-month low of 1.5% y/y in June and, while we expect a small increase in the headline rate during Q3, the bigger picture remains that... 16th July 2024 · 2 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Rapid Response Egypt Consumer Prices (Jun. 2024) Egypt’s headline inflation slowed from 28.1% y/y in May to 27.5% y/y in June, the lowest outturn since the start of 2023. And this came in spite of the baladi bread price hike. Increases to... 10th July 2024 · 2 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Rapid Response Morocco Interest Rate Announcement (June 2024) Morocco’s central bank, Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM) announced this afternoon that it has cut its key policy interest rate by 25bp, to 2.75%. We expect that the Bank will continue to tread cautiously, as the... 25th June 2024 · 2 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Rapid Response Egypt Consumer Prices (May 2024) Egypt’s headline inflation dropped back from 32.5% y/y in April to 28.1% y/y, the lowest outturn since the start of 2023. Inflation is likely to rise again in June and July due to government price... 10th June 2024 · 2 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Rapid Response Middle East & North Africa PMIs (May ‘24) May’s batch of PMIs showed that private non-oil sectors have remained a point of strength in the Gulf economies at the mid-point of Q2 and this is likely to remain the case over the rest of this year... 4th June 2024 · 2 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Rapid Response Saudi Arabia Consumer Prices (Apr. 2024) Saudi Arabia’s headline inflation rate was unchanged at 1.6% y/y in April and, while we think that there may be a slight acceleration at the start of Q3, the bigger picture is that inflation in the... 15th May 2024 · 2 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Rapid Response Egypt Consumer Prices (Apr. 2024) Egypt’s headline inflation rate slowed from 33.3% y/y in March to 32.5% y/y in April and we think that inflation will continue to ease over the rest of this year and into 2025. That said, while... 9th May 2024 · 2 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Rapid Response Saudi Arabia GDP (Q1 2024, Flash Estimate) Saudi Arabia’s flash estimate of GDP showed that the economy exited recession in Q1 and we expect the recovery to continue over the course of the year – and be a bit stronger than most currently... 1st May 2024 · 2 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Rapid Response Saudi Arabia Consumer Prices (Mar. 2024) Saudi Arabia’s headline inflation rate slowed to 1.6% y/y in March on the back of weaker food and non-food inflation. While there’s likely to be a slight bump up in inflation in the second half of... 15th April 2024 · 2 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Rapid Response Egypt Consumer Prices (Mar. ‘24) Egypt’s headline inflation rate slowed from 35.7% y/y in February to 33.3% y/y in March despite the near 40% fall in the pound’s official exchange rate last month. That said, the effects of the... 8th April 2024 · 2 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Rapid Response Middle East & North Africa PMIs (March 2024) March's batch of PMIs showed that the Gulf economies continued to outperform those elsewhere, and have enjoyed a strong start to 2024. 3rd April 2024 · 2 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Rapid Response Saudi Arabia Consumer Prices (Feb.) The increase in Saudi Arabia’s headline inflation rate to 1.8% y/y in February is the highest reading since August and it could creep to above 2.0% y/y in the coming quarters. The bigger picture... 14th March 2024 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Rapid Response Egypt Interest Rate Hike & Devaluation The announcement minutes ago from the Central Bank of Egypt that it has devalued the pound and hiked interest rates by a bumper 600bp, to 27.25%, shows that policymakers are committed to the turn back... 6th March 2024 · 2 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Rapid Response PMIs (Feb. 2024) February’s batch of PMIs from the Middle East and North Africa continued to show that the Gulf’s private non-oil sectors have started 2024 on a strong footing. But Egypt’s economy appears to be... 5th March 2024 · 2 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Rapid Response Saudi Arabia Consumer Prices (Jan. 24) Saudi Arabia’s headline inflation rate edged up from a two-year low of 1.5% y/y in December to 1.6% y/y in January, but we expect that inflation will ease again in the coming months and remain low... 15th February 2024 · 2 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Rapid Response Egypt Consumer Prices (Jan. 2024) Egypt’s headline inflation rate slowed for a fourth consecutive month, easing from 33.6% y/y in December to 29.9% y/y in January. We think inflation will continue to slow this year, but a looming... 8th February 2024 · 2 mins read